{"id":22440,"date":"2015-05-27T11:31:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T01:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=22440"},"modified":"2017-02-10T10:29:03","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T23:29:03","slug":"nadia-coghlan-australian-grand-prix-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/05\/nadia-coghlan-australian-grand-prix-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadia Coghlan \u2013 Australian Grand Prix Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ruchel<\/a>What a fairy tale\u2026 the young Australian rider takes her horse to Germany to train, and three years later, unheralded, slips back into Australia, and at her first major competition since returning home, takes out the Australian Grand Prix title!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Hector asked the questions & Roz Neave took the photos<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

How long have you been away?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Germany for three and a half, four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s serious?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty serious. I was in a stable in Frankfurt for a year \u2013 I worked and I groomed, rode. Then I decided to get really serious and went up to train with Kristy Oatley-Nist and Frau Rehbein as well. I learnt so much!\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you always intend spending that much time in Europe?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo \u2013 a year was the plan. But you can\u2019t do it in a year. You get there and after six months you are still finding your way. After six months then it starts to sink in. It takes a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nadia4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you have to change much?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d trained my horse pretty much by myself with the help of some other instructors. He was always a bit special. But I had picked up a lot of bad habits, now the horses are going very well I feel. They are loose, easy to bring them up, bring them down, do whatever you want…\u201d<\/p>\n

Were they very picky on position?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cKristy yes. Keep your legs still in particular. I wasn\u2019t flopping them, but she wants you to sit very still and sit up straight. My position was never terribly bad in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018In front of the aids\u2019 seems always an issue in Australia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so important because as soon as they are behind, they just feel dead. They have to be forward, thinking forward all the time. Even if you are just thinking it, it helps with all the movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

You said it took six months to start to fit in \u2013 what did you have to learn in those six months?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo have them more relaxed\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Relaxed! That\u2019s what people don\u2019t understand about training in Germany, they think it is all crash, crash, boom!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJust to get them relaxed and loose. Lots of half halts, on the aids, forward, back, in, out, just lots of different things. Not canter, canter, canter circles, lots of different things, transitions all the time. Especially with younger horses \u2013 even with older horses. Just get them thinking and loosen them up, it\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

How old were you when you left Australia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was that scary \u2013 off all by yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I was never really homesick. Only when my cat ran away and she didn\u2019t return. Then I was a bit sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you learn to speak German?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI did, because while Frau Rehbein can speak a little bit of English, she teaches me in Deutsch \u2013 and by the end, Kristy was teaching me in German too.\u201d<\/p>\n

You learnt that in Germany \u2013 or did you speak German when you went there?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo I didn\u2019t speak any when I got there. You just pick it up \u2013 you have to go into shops and buy things, you have to make it work. But in the stables, lots of people want to speak English with you, so you lose out there, but I made myself do it\u2026 some of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NadiaCam\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Northern Champion takes the Australian Grand Prix title…<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of people have the impression, you go to Germany and they are going to really burn you \u2013 they are hard, they scream, and you\u2019ll hate it\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it depends on where you go, but that wasn\u2019t how it happened for me. They can be loud when they are trying to get a point through, but normally, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you have to work very hard?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the horse, yes. You had to be right \u2013 otherwise what\u2019s the point. You can\u2019t half do it and say \u2018good boy\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

What were the most important things you learnt in those three years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCare of the horse really. You\u2019ve got to look after their legs, lots of stable management. Always be around when they are being shod, when the vet is there. Your horse is your priority. With the riding, you\u2019ve got to ride \u2013 you can\u2019t just sit there and breeze along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which riders did you get the most from in Germany?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely Kristy. I started with her and she is just amazing. She has just got it all down pat, routine, routine, routine. And she is so committed. She has a groom but she gets her horses ready. She\u2019s so committed and that is why she has done so well. If you want to be good, I think you have to go overseas to experience that. Not so much to ride a lot of horses but to see them riding \u2013 every day, sit there and watch what they do. There are so many of them, and there are so many horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems to me that a lot of the time it is just that there are a number of people riding together in a hall and you have to ride well because of the others \u2013 it\u2019s different if you are all by yourself in the middle of the arena\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor a start you have to stay out of the way. At Gronw\u00f6ldhof, it\u2019s a big arena, 30 by 65, and in the morning there can be eight to ten horses. You\u2019ve just got to be switched on and watching where everybody is. Watching everyone else ride \u2013 you learn a lot from that. Frau Rehbein or Kristy\u2019s in the corner and they may say a couple of things. Okay \u2013 I\u2019ve got to work on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very different teaching style from the one on one lesson we are used to in Australia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very different because you haven\u2019t got the whole arena. You are riding with say two other people, and they are also getting advice. It\u2019s not the private lesson, on you all the time. I find I can\u2019t really cope with that, always someone in my ear saying do this, do that, now, now, now. I find that a little bit irritating because it doesn\u2019t give you time to think about it. I find it a lot easier to work the way they do, they give you time to play around with it, and then they come back and say that\u2019s working, that\u2019s not \u2013 and let\u2019s try it like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you get the chance to compete?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI competed quite a lot on Northern Campion \u2013 he went over at about M level, medium, then after a year with Kristy I did my first Grand Prix. It was quite amazing, he\u2019s really really good. I\u2019ve been competing on him, Inter 2 and Grand Prix, over there. I also have a young horse, he\u2019s very very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

You competed with him at the World Young Horse Championships, last year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a real learning curve because he moves naturally with very big movement, and I just sat there in the first round. After it, Kristy really got stuck into me, and said, right, you\u2019ve got to ride this time. He improved the second day, which was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I was hoping to ride at the World Championships again, but something happened in the selection process. He competed very well this year. At one competition, he got an 8.0 and the first placed horse got an 8.2 \u2013 and that was the first reserve horse for the German team. I thought I can\u2019t do much better than that, and I sent in my entries\u2026 and still didn\u2019t get picked, but what can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

So what now, now that you are home? Is that a come down?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s different here. The shows are run a bit differently\u2026 it\u2019s not a let down because I wanted to come home. I\u2019ll keep riding but I also want to go to uni. I\u2019ve sort of been, not fluffing around, but I haven\u2019t been doing anything but riding, and I want to do something else. I\u2019ll keep riding and competing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Games in Hong Kong is the aim?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully. Cam is a very good horse, he\u2019s got so much more to give. I\u2019ve just got to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in THM January 2007.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nadia studied dressage in Germany and came home to Australia to win the national title…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1243,1147],"class_list":["post-22440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-dressage","tag-nadia-coghlan"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22440"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32411,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22440\/revisions\/32411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}